<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class=""><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/us/politics/fauci-us-health-officials-tech-covid.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class="">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/us/politics/fauci-us-health-officials-tech-covid.html</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Top U.S. health officials say they intend to offer other nations tech that might be used against Covid.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">By Sheryl Gay Stolberg<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">3/3/22</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""> </span></div><p class="css-axufdj" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">Top federal health officials said Thursday that they intend to begin offering low and middle-income nations access to the technology developed by government scientists that might be used to prevent or treat <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/coronavirus" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Covid-19</span></a>. They did not specify which technologies might be included, but hinted that the policy could eventually apply to the Moderna vaccine if the Biden administration wins a patent dispute with the company.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0.9375rem; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">President Biden’s health secretary, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/us/politics/xavier-becerra-hhs-health-secretary.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Xavier Becerra</span></a>, and his top medical adviser for the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, made the comments to reporters after a meeting with health ministers from around the world. They come as Mr. Biden is preparing to convene his second global summit on Covid-19, expected sometime in the coming weeks.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.9375rem; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">Dr. Fauci said the National Institutes of Health has already “offered to license several N.I.H.-owned technologies” to the World Health Organization’s <a href="https://www.who.int/initiatives/covid-19-technology-access-pool" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Covid-19 Technology Access Pool</span></a>, known as C-TAP, which the health organization describes as a “global one-stop shop” for drug developers to share their intellectual property. The technologies would then be made available to the <a href="https://medicinespatentpool.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Medicines Patent Pool</span></a>, a United Nations-backed public health organization that works to increase access to medicines in poor and middle-income nations.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">Mr. Biden has been under intense pressure from activists and W.H.O. officials to do more to press the pharmaceutical industry to share its technology with the world. The new policy, officials say, will enable poor nations to manufacture inexpensive vaccines and therapeutics that are developed in the United States.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.9375rem; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">But there is a big catch: Dr. Fauci would not be specific about which technologies will be licensed and could not say if Moderna’s powerful coronavirus vaccine — developed in partnership with N.I.H. scientists — would be among them, he said.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.9375rem; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">That is because the company and the government are locked in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/us/moderna-vaccine-patent.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">a bitter dispute</span></a> over who deserves credit for inventing the central component of the vaccine, which<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/us/coronavirus-today-vaccine-waning-protection.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class=""> grew out</span></a> of a four-year collaboration between <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/us/politics/moderna-vaccine-patent-nih.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Moderna and the N.I.H.</span></a>, the government’s biomedical research agency. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/us/coronavirus-today-vaccine-waning-protection.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">N.I.H. has been in talks with Moderna</span></a> for more than a year to try to resolve the disagreement, which has broad implications for the vaccine’s long-term distribution and billions of dollars in future profits.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.9375rem; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">Dr. Fauci said the negotiations were continuing, but both he and Mr. Becerra strongly suggested that if the government wins that dispute and gains ownership of the crucial patent, it would work to include the Moderna technology in its offerings.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.9375rem; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">“President Biden has made it very clear that he wishes to assert all his authorities to make sure that we use everything at our disposal” to make medicines available to those who need them, Mr. Becerra said, adding that “it should be no surprise” that “we’re going to push the envelope where the law allows us.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 1.25rem; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.875rem; max-width: 100%;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">Dr. Fauci said: “I just would repeat, in principle — and you can take from it what you will — that in principle we have offered to license N.I.H.-owned technologies to the C-TAP for the purposes of the Medicines Patents Pool. So whatever it is that we can do, we will do.”</span></div><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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